April 21st - Week 26

     This past week went by really fast for some reason or another. There was a lot of good things that happened this week. We saw a lot of people and had a handful of lessons. The weather has been all right but it's warming up, I really miss the California weather. 

     Tuesday we saw a lot of people. We found a really interesting less active member who is convinced the world will end/the second coming will happen sometime during his lifetime. He has a lot of money and his house is just as messy as the garage back home. This guy just buys whatever he wants, mainly survival gear, and throws it in his house. He's crazy. He doesn't know what to believe and what not to believe and he's just loosing it. He's a really funny guy though, he likes to make himself laugh... Interesting guy. Later, we finally had a lesson with this less active family that we've been trying to get a hold of forever. But sadly, I don't think they enjoy having us over yet. We also found this Italian guy named Alfonz who is a really cool guy. He's read the Book of Mormon and had the lessons before but doesn't want to change religion because "Catholicism is tradition in the family". He's the only one in the family who has listened to the missionaries in the past. I believe if we can get his wife to soften up, they'll be baptized. They have a lot of potential. 

     Wednesday we spent a good chunk of the evening with a new member, Herman. We had a lesson with him, then he wanted to come to our next appointment, so he came and took us out to dinner afterwords. That appointment he came to was with a part member family, Gloria and her teenage son, David. Since Gloria is a member we figured she knew a decent amount of doctrine and had taught some of it to her son but as we started the lesson we quickly realized neither of them know very much about the church at all. Even though Gloria is a member, we're treating them like investigators. It was a blessing to have Herman there because he helped out a lot in the lesson. We had to do a lot of adapting in that lesson and I'm very grateful for the guidance of the spirit because that lesson would have not gone well otherwise. 

     Thursday after district meeting and planning we had dinner and a lesson with another new member. He's on his way to getting the priesthood. 

     Friday was a busy day. In the morning we found a new investigator while trying to find a less active member. His name is David, he's a little shy. We had an appointment cancel us in the afternoon. We had a great lesson with Bryan in the evening. Every lesson we've had with Bryan, at the end, we've tried to teach him how he can know for himself that what were teaching is true. We teach it differently every time. I think he finally understands what he has to do now. That was an exciting moment. 

     Saturday we found another new investigator named Mary. She's met with missionaries before too, she likes the church. She's just busy all the time. Later in the day, the guy who we put the copy of the Book of Mormon on his porch a week or so ago, we met his teenage son. They seem really interested and open minded towards the church. The son said his dad has a super busy schedule though. 

     Sunday morning I opened up the package with the huge Easter basket in it. Thank you for that, it was awesome! I wore one of the ties you guys gave me the rest of the day. After church the Bishop gave us some tasks to complete for him, we did that. Then we had dinner at a members home. Sunday was a pretty relaxed day. We were in the car for a long time Sunday, I didn't like that. It's a huge blessing to have a car but it's kind of starting to make me a little lazy. Overall I did have a good Easter Sunday, thank you guys for the huge basket.

April 14th - Week 25

     This past week was a nice week, went by really fast too. The weather was great all this week, a perfect 80 to 85 degrees during the day. We're finally breaking away from this cold winter weather. All throughout this week we were pretty busy. On Tuesday we stopped by a lot of people and met some less active families to start teaching! Other than that nothing really exciting happened Tuesday. I'm super excited to start seeing these families though!

     Wednesday was more of a calmer day. We went on exchange with the zone leaders, Elder Hopkins stayed in our area and I went into the zone leaders area with Elder Buford. During the exchange we taught a class of members and investigators about some attributes of Christ. Then we stopped by some really cool families. The zone leaders have cool people their working with in their area. Overall the exchange went really well, I liked being with Elder Buford for the day. He's a good example. 

     Thursday afternoon we ended the exchange right after district meeting then the zone had lunch with Stake President Via Sikahema. President Sikahema brought pizza for all the companionships. After lunch we weekly planned then walked around a part of our area where there's some members bunched closely together. 

     Friday was a warm day, but the work was a little slower Friday. We did have a lesson with Bryan and our member that came to the lesson with us took us out for dinner afterwards. However a lot of the people we stopped by weren't home either. 

     Saturday was more of an exciting day. We went and helped out at the bishops storehouse and it was really busy, they had a lot for us to do there. We were there until the early afternoon then tried to contact a list of people until the evening. As we went to go contact a potential investigator, we were walking around an apartment complex looking for his address and we came upon a baptist guy who mentioned he had seen missionaries before. As we were talking to him he told us he doesn't agree with the baptist religion, So we talked to him about what we believe. As we were talking to this guy, we taught him about everything. We talked to him about prophets, temples, baptism, the Book of Mormon, the restoration, the bible, Christ, the priesthood and lots of other stuff. However everything we talked to him about, he used his agency to completely disagree with what we were saying. But when we talked to him about his beliefs, he believed the same things we believe. It was frustrating. Eventually we kind of gave up talking to each other but I asked him if we could show him a conference video of the prophet on his computer right before we left. He agreed, and we got into his home. I pulled up the video for him and slyly placed a copy of the Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet on his desk with a pass along card that had all our information on it. He told us he would watch the video after we left but we got out of there as fast as we could before he noticed the book. When we got out of the door we ran back to the car and got out of there so he couldn't give us the book back. It was exciting. Hopefully he calls us back, he was a cool guy but just didn't want to listen to us. And that's what we did Saturday. We were invited to a youth activity Saturday night for dinner but we couldn't be there for very long because we had an appointment with our ward mission leader. 

     Sunday, was a super busy day. We had meetings back to back to back all day yesterday. Ward council meeting, sacrament meeting, coordination meeting, meeting with a member, and other various throughout the day. Yesterday just went by really fast. 

     Today we had to take our car to the dealership for a factory recall. So while we were waiting around for our car to be inspected I went and checked out the dealership showroom! They had some nice Stingrays and Cameros there, so nice!

   This past week has been a pretty busy week. Elder Hopkins and I are starting to see the work pick up out here, slowly but surely. Tuesday was one of the warmer days we've had out here in a while. I'm ready for the summer to come around, this cold weather has lasted to long. We saw a lot of people throughout the day Tuesday. As we went to go stop by less active members we would go knock on doors around their homes and ask them if they knew anyone we could visit in the area. I learned that people in our area don't really talk to each other. Nobody knows their neighbors, everyone keeps to themselves. As we went about the day we met some pretty cool people but nobody accepted a return appointment. We would talk to these people about the restored gospel for a good amount of time, like fifteen or twenty minutes, and we would try everything we could, but in the end they still wouldn't accept. However, we did get someone to go to the church for help on their family history. We also met a guy who I think would have accepted a return appointment but he's going to be in Florida for the next three weeks. We're defiantly going to follow up on that though! Everyone we met throughout the day Tuesday, we met for a reason. I know The Lord was working with us and through us. 

   Wednesday was busy day too but not much happened Wednesday like Tuesday. We didn't get to
talk to as many people. We stopped by a lot of members but there wasn't very many people home Wednesday. 

   Thursday we had zone training, then interviews with President, and weekly planning. Zone training was good, I learned a lot about finding when you teach and teaching when you find, how to more get people more interested when you talk to them at the door, and find investigators through others. Interviews with president Anderson went well. The interview was a lot shorter than I
was expecting it to be but it went well. Weekly planning took up almost the rest of the day. With the little time we had Thursday night we visited less active members. 

   Friday we had a lot of people to see. We hopefully found a family to start teaching! We were visiting an older member and his less active son and the son asked us about a family that lives right down the street from them who previous missionaries were teaching. We had no records connected with the address because a lot of data was lost when the paper records were transferred onto our iPads. But we went and visited the family and the kids were really excited to see us. We weren't able to meet the parents because the dad wasn't home and the mom had a headache but the kids told us to come back sometime this week. They told us the missionaries used to come over all the time but just one day stopped showing up. They were glad to see us. Elder Hopkins and I were really glad that member mentioned the family to us. The members out here are awesome. We had another lesson with Bryan Friday evening as well. He is scheduled to be baptized on May 25 but he wants to be baptized sooner. I would love to baptize him sooner but he needs to gain a testimony before he can be dunked. He came to one of the conference sessions on Saturday. 

  Elder Hopkins and I were at the church almost all day Saturday. We tried to contact a referral that morning but he wasn't home. As we were about to walk away though, Elder Hopkins and I both had the impression to leave a copy of the Book of Mormon on this guys door step, so we did. Then at the first session of conference, we were the only people there other than the Brownlow's. Bryan came for the second session. He said he liked it, couldn't get much out of him though. Between the second session and the priesthood session, all the guys in the ward had dinner at the church, Bryan stayed for that as well. He couldn't stay for priesthood but there were a lot of guys there for the priesthood session. 

   Sunday we were at the church for most of the day. We were there for the first session. After the first session the spanish branch invited us to partake in their buffet they had at the church. Couldn't say no to that. Then we stayed for the second session and went to a members home for dinner. Out of all the talks that were given in General Conference I don't have a favorite yet. All the talks were really good and I took lots of notes but I have yet to choose a favorite. Conference came up pretty fast. I remember leaving for the MTC soon after October conference. I can't believe that was 6 months ago. Crazy.

Love you all!

Chance

 This is our car, the only car in the parking lot at Church for Conference on Saturday.

Week 23

   This past week had it's ups and downs, but overall it was a great week. Last Monday the Fekete family had us over for dinner... Nicest dinner I've had on my mission so far! I have no idea what Sister Fekete cooked but it was amazing. I know it was Dominican food but other than that i'm clueless. I'm trying to get her to give me some recipes to send home. She's a great cook! She's right up behind you Mom. 

   Tuesday for the most part wasn't to eventful at first. As we stopped by less active members and tried to get them to give the church a second chance, we would tract around their house before we moved on to the next less active member on the list to visit. No luck. Early evening we decided to stop by a woman named Gloria. When we arrived at her house, we knocked on the door and when she answered she was so excited to see us! Her son was there as well and he was shocked to see us astoo. We talked to her at the door for a few minutes and she told us she thought she would never see missionaries again because she thought the church had forgotten about her and her son. I got out my iPad to share a scripture with her and for some reason she was so amazed that I had the scriptures on it. She was very fascinated. She had her son go and get her iPad, and she had us download the LDS Library app on her iPad for her. She literally thought it was the best thing in the world because she could enlarge the text. She couldn't read her paper copy of the Book of Mormon because the words were to small. In Alma 37:6 it says, "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass". Gloria helped me gain a strong testimony of this scripture. On Sunday when we saw her at church with her son, they were both very very happy. She told us she had been reading and rekindled her testimony. She also said she was fired from her job but she was really happy about it. She said she wouldn't have been able to come to church if that didn't happen because she usually has to go to work at noon. She was so happy to be back at church. Unfortunately she speaks better spanish than english.... Her son is not a member, but he wants to be. He loves the church. Her and her son both speak perfect english but I guess she prefers spanish so the spanish Elders stole them from us. 

   Wednesday went by fast. We had a few appointments lined up but only one followed through. That was with Herman. He brought us this "authentic pizza from Philly" for after the lesson. It was disgusting. We couldn't tell him that though because this was his favorite pizza place. 

   Thursday was just a very long day. District meeting and weekly planning just seemed to drag on for ever for some reason. Good thing we had an appointment that night. 

   Friday seemed long too. We did have a lesson with Brian. He still wants to look around at all the churches before committing to a baptism date. But he loved church on Sunday. 

   Saturday was a better day. Saturday Morning when we went to the Bishop's Storehouse it was super busy. I got to see the Morgans there from Philly and pack up all the stuff they were taking to other members from the ward. It was cool to se them again. Saturday Night we were scheduled to go over to the Matis' home for dinner. They made us this really good home made pizza. I don't know why but everyone out here loves their pizza. I think I've had more pizza on my mission than the rest of my life. 

   Sunday we saw Gloria and her son at church and Brian came to Church as well. At first Brian was very nervous to be trying something new, but as he sat through sacrament we saw him calm down. He told us that it wasn't what he was expecting but he really liked it. I don't know what he was expecting, he wouldn't tell us. After church we went to go visit an old man who I've never noticed at church before but I found out he actually comes every Sunday. He's an awesome old man. He's 88 but he's still in good shape. He told us to go visit the members down the street from him, so we did and they gave us all their leftovers for dinner to take home. The active members out here are pretty cool, I like this ward a lot. Just wish people would agree to learn more about the church so we would have more investigators.

Week 22

   This week started out like any other week. P-day was good, we played basketball with some youth before we had to go to a members home. Tuesday was an interesting day. In the morning Elder Hellyer and I went out to get in touch with some less active members, then came back for lunch. Just before we were about to walk back out the door I got a call from the assistants. They told me, "Elder Hellyer is being ET'd (emergency transferred), we need to talk to him". He had about two hours to get all his stuff packed up. The assistants came and picked him up a little before 5. The zone leaders came and picked me up at the same time the assistants got Elder Hellyer. So I hung out with the zone leaders until about 11 o'clock that night until I got a new companion. Didn't get back home until midnight. But my new companion is Elder Hopkins. He's cool. He's more motivated than Elder Hellyer was, more in tune with our missionary purpose as well. I don't know why Elder Hellyer was picked to participate in this ET but nobody will tell me anything about anyone so... Now that Elder Hellyer is gone, it's basically like Elder Hopkins and I are doubling in. We're both very new to the area. We don't know very many members yet, we're working hard to find investigators because there weren't any before (we just recently picked one up and possibly found a family to teach), and neither of us know the area. So far things are going really well though, a lot better than I thought. 

   Wednesday was just a day full of finding. Spent most of the day stopping by less active members then knocking doors around their homes. There's a lot of less active members out here who just simply don't want to come back to the church, just don't want to; weird. We did find some members however who were very excited to see us. 

   Thursday we spent the day at the church for district meeting and weekly planning. had dinner with a member after that. 

   Friday was a long day. We spent most of the day in the car. We found a binder in our apartment that has a summary of every person in the area book and ward directory. It gave us a lot of very useful information. With that we compiled a list of people to stop by starting from the bottom of our area working our way back up. We were able meet a family who's the neighbor of a less active woman that day and found a kid who is dying to become a missionary. He loved coming to church, the only reason why he doesn't come now is because he doesn't have a way to get there. 

   Saturday was a full day. We spent all morning having fun at the bishop's storehouse. Right after that we helped the ward clean up after a woman's expo. Stopped by some people, then played basketball at the church. Normally we have a group of non-members come play with us but that night it was just us and a member kid named sack.

   Sunday was a full day as well. We had church, meetings after church, someone to take the sacrament to, people to stop by and dinner at a members home. It is supposed to get cold again this week. I can't wait for summer to come around. I am tired of the cold. It'll be easier to exercise in the morning during the summer too. Hopefully throughout this next week we will find more people to teach.

Week 21

  Being in a car area is a lot different than being in a walking area. In Philly it was really easy to find people to talk to on the bus or the sub, or just walking around. Out here we have to go knock on doors every now and then, which I don't really enjoy doing. Hopefully when the weather warms up we'll see more people outside. 

   Tuesday we knocked doors and stopped by former investigators. In the evening we had dinner with a part member family. The ward out here loves us and feeds us a lot. The people in the ward are all really cool and down to earth, they're funny and relaxed. 

   Wednesday we knocked doors again. Nobody answered when we knocked but we were able to talk to a guy we saw running and he said he was interested in hearing what we have to say. His name it Matt. We set up an appointment to meet with him. Every Wednesday we have a lesson with this guy named Herrman. He was baptized without a testimony but we're helping him gain the spiritual strength he needs. He lives off of government money but he thinks he's loaded and always insists on taking us out to eat at really nice/expensive restaurants. We try to talk him out of it but he gets mad at us every time we don't take the offer haha. He bought us lunch that afternoon. Wednesday night we had dinner at the ward mission leaders home and during dinner we talked about getting members to fellowship their friends and neighbors and invite them to listen to the missionaries. So far it seems like we have a plan that should be really successful, hopefully we can implement that soon. 

   Thursday after zone training, stake president Via Sikahema brought all the missionaries in the zone pizza for lunch. We got to meet him and talk to him for a while, that was cool. 

   Friday we knocked doors. It was an uneventful day. However, since we have our iPads now we have all the Mormon Messages and Bible Videos downloaded. We had the idea to ask people if we could show them a quick 5 minute video if they answered the door. Out of all the doors we knocked, only one person came to the door, and we persuaded her to watch the video. She wasn't open minded, at first she didn't want anything to do with us. But as she watched this random video we chose, the spirit worked on her and she became really interested in investigating the Book of Mormon. She ended up asking us for a copy of the book. She didn't want us to meet with her but she was excited to receive a Book of Mormon. 

   Saturday morning we went to the Bishops storehouse again to help out. They love having us there. President Anderson gave us permission to go every weekend, sine it's out of our area. So helping at the Bishops storehouse became a weekly thing to do. I enjoy being there helping out, having fun, and meeting new people. In the afternoon we met with this guy that we've never met before who randomly sent us a text out of nowhere. His name is Bryan. He told us a friend of his gave him one of our cards with our number on the back. We have no idea who gave him the card. We called him up and he told us we could meet with him right then. When we showed up we weren't what he was expecting. He was expecting Catholic ministers... He didn't seem very interested in what we told him but he agreed to continue meeting with us. 

   Sunday was a quick day. Church was good. We had a member bring a non-member friend who wants to learn more about the church. We we're able to introduce ourselves to him. He was an interesting guy, we couldn't tell if he thought the church was weird of if he was really enjoying himself. Sunday night the Triano's had us over for dinner, they're a really cool part member family. The dad's not a member but he will be someday. Something I want to do out here is start a family home evening at the church where members can bring non-member friends and investigators can meet members and everyone can be spiritually uplifted and have fun. 

I cannot wait for the summer to come around!

This past week, I've been transferred!

    On Friday, February 28 the zone leaders called me and told me to pack my stuff. Monday was my last P-day in the Independence East area. I spent a lot of the day saying goodbye to members and other people I met out there. Monday night at family home evening, Brother Abad (who was a fake leg) took his leg off and had me take a picture with it. I'll send that to you guys on the flash drive. Tuesday was my last day in the area. We went around and visited less active members and other investigators, had lessons with them and said goodbye. 

   Wednesday was the big day of transfers. In the morning I took my suitcase and walked out the door then headed down to the Broomall building. It was sad leaving that area,I was not ready to leave the area. But I was ready for a new adventure. Elder Pintor was a good guy, and I enjoyed having him as my companion.  I'm going to miss all the people out there and the experience of being in the ghetto. I would love to return to that area!

   As for my new area, I have been transferred to the Cherry Hill New Jersey first ward. My new Companion is Elder Hellyer. He's cool, so far I like him a lot. He's from Mona Utah. My new area is not ghetto, there's actually houses and their separated. People here have lawns and cars and decent property. So far I like it here a lot, the members are awesome! The members I've met so far are really cool people. In our area we have a car, and the members have us over for dinner often; I hope I don't get fat.  Our apartment is also really nice, the only down side is that we have squirrels in our roof that fight all the time.

   Thursday was District meeting and weekly planning. In our district it's Elder Hellyer and I plus four sister missionaries. During Weekly planning I discovered that we don't have very many investigators yet but we can fix that. It's going to be hard memorizing the area out here because it's a larger area and there's lots of random roads. 

   Friday we spent a lot of time in the car driving from house to house talking to former investigators. Being in the car most of the day was not to great, I would rather be walking around but it takes to long to walk from place to place out here for the most part. Elder Hellyer and I entertain ourselves in the car though whenever we're driving, we get along pretty well. 

   Saturday morning we were recruited to go help out in the Bishop's store house. I've never been to a Bishop's store house before so I didn't know what to expect, but it was fun. We stocked shelves, broke up pallets, and fixed things up. We did that for the first half of the day then went to dinner at the Drinkwater's house that night. 

   Sunday I got to meet most of the people in the ward. The ward is great! After church we had a lesson with a recent convert and had another dinner at a members home. This area is great!


   My new address is: 2708 Hamilton Blvd Voorhees New Jersey 08043.